CHAP. XIII.] TUE, FOURTH DAY. 239 



And though Sir Francis Bacon will allow the eel's life to be 



but ten years, yet he, in his "History of Life and Death," 



mentions a lamprey belonging to the Roman emperor to be 



made tame, and so kept for almost threescore years : and 



that such useful and 



pleasant observations 



were made of this 



lamprey, that Cras- 



sus the Orator, who 



kept her, lamented 



her death. And we 



read in Doctor Hake- Lamprey. 



will, that Hortensius was seen to weep at the death of a 



lamprey that he had kept long and loved exceedingly. 1 



It is granted by all, or most men, that eels, for about six 

 months, that is to say, the six cold months of the year, stir 

 not up and down, neither in the rivers, nor in the pools in 

 which they usually are, but get into the soft earth or mud ; 

 and there many of them together bed themselves, and live 

 without feeding upon any thing, as I have told you some 

 swallows have been observed to do in hollow trees 'for those 



bably the reason why eels, who are impatient of cold, seek, by their 

 migratory instinct, such localities in which to deposit their spawn. In the 

 spring countless myriads of young eels make their way to pure fresh water. 

 A column of them has been traced in the Thames from Somerset House to 

 Oxford about the beginning of May, and I have watched their progress 

 with much interest. No impediment stops them. They keep as much as 

 possible close along shore, and as they pass water-courses, open ditches, and 

 brooks, &c., some of them leave the column and enter these places, along 

 which they eventually make their way to ponds, smaller rivers, &c. So 

 strong is the migratory instinct of these little eels, that when I have taken 

 some in a bucket and returned them to the river at some distance from the 

 column, they have immediately rejoined in it without any deviation to the 

 right or left. On the banks of the Thames the passage is called Eel-fare. 

 Two observers watching their progress at Kingston, calculated that from 

 sixteen to eighteen hundred passed a given line per minute. Rennie saw (on 

 the 13th of May) a column of young eels of uniform size, about as thick as a 

 crow-quill, and three inches long, returning to the river Clyde, in 

 almost military order, keeping within parallel lines of about six inches. 

 He traced it for several hours without perceiving any diminution. ED. 



1 Crassus was for this reproached in the senate of Rome by Domitius, 

 in these words "Foolish Crassus! you wept for your Murena" [or 

 Lamprey]. " That is more," retorted Crassus, "than you did for your two 

 wives." Lord Bacon's "Apophthegms." H. 



